Populist Discourse Research Articles

The gendered effect of populism on innovation

This research addresses the impact of the remarkable rise in populism on innovative new ventures. Integrating institutional theory with gender role congruity theory, we reason that the surge of populist discourse by a nation's top political leaders decreases the innovativeness of new ventures, and this negative relationship is more pronounced for women entrepreneurs. We also consider two critical yet overlooked institutions, gender inequality and grammatical gender marking in the dominant languages that entrepreneurs speak, and propose that they reinforce this negative relationship. Data from 69,406 observations of entrepreneurs across 40 countries during the period of 2005–2018, analyzed with a difference-in-differences (DiD) design, support our hypotheses. Theoretical and policy implications are discussed for the challenges of promoting innovation among women entrepreneurs, in countries with greater gender inequality and where the dominant language exhibits greater intensity of grammatical gender marking, with populism on the rise worldwide.

Review of Baysha (2022): War, Peace, and Populist Discourse in Ukraine

Review of Baysha (2022): War, Peace, and Populist Discourse in Ukraine

The Devil and Florentino: Specters of Petro-Populism in Venezuela

AbstractScholarship on the political economy of natural resources in the Global South has often relied on the concept of the “resource curse” to explain the negative features of extractive economies and their alleged tendency to promote rent capture at the expense of national sovereignty and development. Such theories link the behavior of social actors to an excess of “unearned income,” with little reference to the concrete forms of political and cultural mediation that reproduce this structure of growth. This article explores the role of the devil symbol in populist discourse in Venezuela and how this spectral figure comes to mediate subaltern consciousness. Tracing the origins of this image to colonialism and efforts to grasp the dynamics of the modern petrostate, the analysis shows how use of this symbol to mediate the forecast transition from a rentier to a productive economy has given workers in a state enterprise a potent set of signs to articulate opposition to unjust labor conditions. Venezuelan leaders have deployed figures drawn from local folklore to divide society into two competing power blocs. Yet, while these discourses are effective at forging coalitions and justifying specific reallocations of oil wealth, they do not obviate the tensions of this transition, and a counternarrative using these same figures has arisen in response. The article concludes with an analysis of parallels between global theories of the resource curse and local Venezuelan iterations of this discourse as well as a discussion of the role of translation in theories of culture and modernity.

Managing the Risk of Living: Life Imprisonment, the Medical Gaze and the Construction of the Paroled Body

Abstract Drawing on Israeli life-sentence parole hearings, we argue that release decisions are centred on the body, not the soul. The board employs a ‘medical gaze’ that dissects the paroled body by magnifying the applicant’s dying body and narrowing the gaze to evaluate the days left to live. A new risk emerges: the risk of living upon release rather than dying. The board is ambivalent when managing this risk: the body is treated with suspicion, the applicant is criticized for their bodily state and risk and populist discourses are recalled to back parole decisions. Contrary to the conventional wisdom that portrays parole as focussing on rehabilitation and risk, the construction of the paroled body to manage the risk of living amounts to denying any moral worth or possibility of personal growth.

Populist Appeals, Emotions, and Political Mobilization

Populist politicians frequently employ anti-establishment appeals in their discourse by targeting an imagined or real power elite. Do such appeals have a mobilizing effect among voters? What role do the emotional responses of voters play in this process? We address these questions using a vignette experiment embedded into a nationally representative survey fielded in Turkey, a country where a populist party has long been in power. Our research design enables us to assess whether voters respond more positively to a populist framing of a call for mobilization on an issue compared to a non-populist framing, and whether their emotional responses act as mediators. We find that populist rhetoric indeed does have a mobilizing effect, though only for a low-cost form of political participation (signing a petition) and only among the constituency of the populist party. Turning to the role of emotions, we find that the populist framing of the issue led voters to report more discontent, despair, and anxiety, and these emotions mediate the positive influence of the populist message on mobilization. Thus, our study contributes to research on populism by highlighting the role of emotions in the mobilizing effect of populist discourse.

Diriliş: Resurrection theme in the populist regime of ‘New Turkey’

Populism has become the pillar of contemporary right-wing politics, and it has a large discursive toolkit, varying in different geopolitical contexts but always drawing its references from existing narratives, myths, affects, and cosmologies of a given public. The success of populist regimes lies particularly in their ability to harness existing imaginaries and turn them into political currency. Turkey’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) is no exception to this trend through its constant cultivation of antagonistic themes and manufacture of new hostilities. To get a better grasp of the ways in which this is accomplished, this report focuses on one of the most appealing, popular, and political themes in Turkish-Islamist politics: Diriliş (Resurrection). One can come across this theme in national politics, foreign policy, popular media, or the Islamist intellectual realm. Starting out as a Turkish Sunni Islamist philosophy in the Islamist intellectual realm, the diriliş theme proliferated over the years, subsequently with the rise of political Islam, and became a building block of Turkish-Islamist populist discourse in Turkey. With a close focus on various Islamist journals in İslamcı Dergiler Projesi (Islamic Journals Project) database and media, popular culture, and politics, this report charts the trajectory of the diriliş theme from the 1960s until today. I show its popularization process, its politicization throughout decades, and its gendered foundation. Diriliş theme appears and disappears at significant political moments in Turkey, and it successfully appeals to Turkish-Islamist groups while converting feelings of oppression to power and domination. Its loaded history makes diriliş a very powerful instrument for AKP’s populism.

Television series as propaganda: the populist discourse in Aghazadeh

ABSTRACT This article explores the strategic use of the popular television series Aghazadeh as a tool for disseminating regime propaganda and shaping public opinion in Iran. The regime’s proactive approach in controlling and creating cultural productions is examined, highlighting its investment in countering foreign and diaspora narratives by creating commercially appealing entertainment that reinforces regime values. Aghazadeh employs populist discourse to mobilize public support, framing threats to the nation and its women as national rather than ideological challenges. The series portrays corrupt political elites as major contributors to social inequality and emphasizes the complexity of combatting corruption. It also subverts negative stereotypes associated with the Revolutionary Guards, presenting them as protectors of the nation. Ultimately, Aghazadeh (alongside its making-of documentary) serves to reinforce the existing power structure and manipulate public sentiment through cultural production.

Bordering Inclusion and Exclusion in the Discourses of Marine Le Pen and Eric Zemmour

This paper focuses on the discursive construction of borders and discourses of exclusion and inclusion in French right-wing populist discourse. It elaborates on the idea of the politicization of borders in contemporary political communication and their symbolic meaning as an expression of national sovereignty, security, and identity. Using the approach of discourse analysis, the author investigates how bordering discourses were employed by Marine Le Pen and Eric Zemmour during the 2022 presidential campaign. The empirical analysis focuses on the parties’ programs, candidates’ discourses, and their social media communication. This offers valuable insights into how political actors construct borders and shape ‘us’ and ‘them’ groups.
 Keywords: populism, discourse analysis, borders, othering, inclusion, exclusion.

Populist Discourse and Public Support for Executive Aggrandizement in Latin America

What explains citizen support for executive aggrandizement? Previous work points to support for the president, showing that individuals who support the incumbent are more accepting of executive aggrandizement. Yet, the role of the president in shaping support for (and the meaning of) executive aggrandizement is unexplored. I argue that populist discourse increases support for executive aggrandizement by framing the president as the genuine representative of the people and by portraying institutional opposition as corrupt. Two studies support this argument: First, a multilevel analysis shows that a text-based measure of populist discourse is associated with increasing support for the president closing congress or the supreme court. The estimated effect of populist discourse is largest among presidential supporters. Second, a survey experiment conducted in Ecuador shows that populist and anti-elitist discourse increase support for a hypothetical executive closing the legislature. The findings indicate that populist discourse undermines public opinion as an executive accountability mechanism.

'Like we definitely have to go greener, but…': Analysing affective-discursive practices in populist environmental discourse.

Previous studies on environmental issues in right-wing populism have mostly focused on political actors and their argumentation. In contrast, this study examines environmental populist discourse from the perspective of laypeople in Finland. We used interviews (n = 25) to analyse affective-discursive practices in environmental talk, identifying four partly interrelated practices: belittling the 'annoying liberals', constructing the ordinary rural people as victims, externalizing blame to the 'real' polluters, and glorifying Finnish nature. These practices shed light on subject positions, affect, and functions in environmental discourse. Our contributions to the field of social psychology are threefold. First, we apply an affective-discursive approach in a novel context, deepening our understanding of affect in environmental populism. Second, we explore the nuanced features of populist reasoning and argumentation, shedding light on the functions and social implications of populist environmental discourse. Third, our analysis of identities and the discourse of laypeople provides insights into the dynamics that contribute to the polarization around environmental issues in society. We argue that the sceptical environmental discourse associated with right-wing populism may persist precisely due to the affective and polarized nature of environmental issues.

“Something Was Going to Change”

The subject of the article is a critical presentation of aspects of the Democratic Transition period (Metapolitefsi) in Greece through interviews and e-mails exchanged by subscribers to the mailing list of the magazine Disability Now, collected from April to July 2000. At the heart of these dialogues lies the discourse about the lifting of accessibility barriers for disabled people in Greece during the 1990s. Through the use of contemporary political theories on populism, the author explains that the discourse on accessibility barriers becomes “a place of political opportunity.” The participants develop a kind of populist discourse inspired by the ideology of the political theory of Modernization, as well as by the possibilities and disadvantages of Greece within the politico- economic framework of the EU. These elements imbue the meaning of the disabled self with a dual content: They connect and unite disabled individuals by producing the expression of an emancipatory discourse which, however and at the same time, is maintained through traces of an ablenationalistic rhetoric, activated by notions of Greekness and Europeanness.

‘Softballs’ for ‘Hardballs’: The congenial political interview on right-wing partisan TV news outlets

Taking a conversation-analytic approach, this article examines potentially shifting norms of political interviewing against the surge of authoritarian populism and increasingly legitimated forms of political and discursive bias on affiliated partisan TV outlets. Based on four political interviews of Donald Trump and Steve Bannon on Fox News and GB News, the analysis documents changes in interviewing practices away from the conventions of accountability interviewing. These changes involve the design of IR questions, the interpersonal dynamics between IR and IE, and the interactional work performed by questions and political interviewing at large. It is demonstrated that, in the aftermath of organizational and ideological disruptions affecting partisan right-wing media such as Fox News, political interviewing enacts a congenial type of questioning, with attendant transformations in the negotiation of accountability. The analysis documents two variations of congenial interviewing practices, one in the absence of adversarial questioning, and the other in the presence of ostensibly accountability questions, that are nevertheless deployed as interviewer resources for doing strategic image-repair work in the benefit of the interviewee. The attested questioning practices have implications for the normalization of authoritarian populist discourses and agendas, and, also, for the future of journalism as watchdog and safeguard of democratic institutions in liberal democracies.

Mobilization of shared victimhood in the radical right populist Finns Party supporters’ identity work: A narrative–discursive approach to populist support

AbstractIn the 21st century, populist leaders have created and shaped narratives of threatened nations to foster a sense of shared victimhood and increase electoral appeal. However, an intriguing question has emerged: What roles do these outlined populist discourses of a threatened nation and shared victimhood play in the identity work of populist supporters? This study employs a narrative–discursive approach to analyse 25 in‐depth interviews with radical right populist Finns Party supporters. We investigate how the supporters construct and utilize populist discourses and narratives of lived experiences to legitimize their political support for the Finns Party. Furthermore, we illustrate how the related subject positions enable populist supporters to reproduce and enhance the populist discourse of ‘people's’ victimhood through the actions of ‘others’. This study contributes to the field by demonstrating how populist discourses and narratives of lived experiences can be mobilized into political support for the Finns Party.

“It’s All About US vs THEM!”: Comparing Chinese Populist Discourses on Weibo and Twitter

The recent resurgence of populism has led to renewed interest in the phenomenon, but it remains unclear how this phenomenon has manifested itself in non-Western settings like China. This article analyses Chinese populism and provides a systematic categorization of online discourses related to this phenomenon, including ideas about “the people,” “corrupt elites,” and “enemies.” The article is based on a collection of more than 100,000 Chinese online posts, collected from both Weibo and Twitter, that were classified as populist or not using natural language processing (NLP) models. We show how populism has manifested itself in Chinese online venues, and how populist discourses on Weibo and Twitter differ in topics, semantic content, and in who posts (agenda setters) and shares posts (audiences). The comparison demonstrates that different Chinese netizens take competing approaches to define the place of a rising China, and this also puts populism into the context of the peculiar Chinese way of rallying “the people” on behalf of the nation. Findings from this study contribute new insights into understanding populism in Chinese cyberspaces and provide a cross-platform perspective for understanding populist discourses in national and transnational contexts. The study also adds to computational methods in empirical research of populism in a comparative perspective.

Populism and Anti-Intellectualism: the Evolution of the Political Views of the Italian "Five Star Movement" (2005–2022)

Among the characterizing features of populism, which has become an integral part of the party-political systems of Western countries, anti-intellectualism is often listed. It is understood as distrust of intellectuals, expert knowledge and the scientific community. Italy, the “political laboratory of Europe,” provides rich material for studying the connection between anti-intellectualism and populism. This article attempts to analyze the role and evolution of anti-intellectualism in populist discourse using the example of the Italian Five Star Movement (M5S). Five Stars, founded by comedian Beppe Grillo and IT entrepreneur Gianroberto Casaleggio, has become one of the main parties in the country, while expressing controversial views from the point of view of the scientific community. Using qualitative text and discourse analysis, the party's official blogs, M5S bills, articles from Italian and foreign media are analyzed. As a result, this work offers a balanced view of the gradual development of anti-intellectual sentiments within the Movement in the context of the overall process of institutionalization of the party into the mainstream of Italian politics during the period of 2005–2022. The subject of this article remains completely unexplored in Russian scientific literature and little studied in foreign science. Analysis of this subject shows that in the process of institutionalization, the long stay of the anti-establishment party in government, populist rhetoric, including anti-intellectual rhetoric, is emasculated and approaches the “mainstream”.

The MORAL PANIC AND POLITICS OF MORAL – THE ROLE OF AUTHORITIES AND MIDDLE-CLASS IN THE GROWTH OF ISLAMIC POPULISM IN WEST SUMATRA

This study delves into the nuanced intersection between morality and populism in West Sumatra, specifically examining the emergence of Islamic populism post-Reform. In contrast to prevailing studies that predominantly scrutinize economic inequality and immigration within populist discourse, this research delves into the lesser-explored realm of moral and religious dimensions. Through the analysis of three pivotal factors influencing moral and populist politics, the study underscores the influence of local culture in reinforcing Islamic populism, the social bonds tethered to the cultural and religious identity of the Minangkabau ethnic group, and the synchronization of governmental political strategies with societal religious and cultural ethos. This study using a qualitative approach. The data obtained by interviews, observations, and documentations. Findings illuminate the impact of social connections on individual behavior, societal norms, and institutional frameworks, particularly in guiding and shaping moral behavior. Conformity, entrenched in tradition and religion, holds substantial sway in societal evaluations and restraints. The communal societal perspective, prevailing over individualistic notions, serves as a regulatory force in tandem with community values

German language studies: main research trends in Russia and Germany

The article is devoted to a review of current trends in modern research in Russian and foreign German studies. The purpose of the article is to describe existing trends in Russian and German studies and current research based on the material of the German language. In the article, German studies is understood in its narrow definition, as a subject area whose sphere of interests exclusively includes research in German language and literature. The material for the analysis was scientific articles in leading Russian and German publications, associations of government agencies, as well as publications of Russian and German research organizations. The rationale for this is the significant advances in scientific research of Russian (Soviet) and German Germanists in the twentieth century. During the study, methods of analysis, synthesis and observation were used. The development trends of Russian and German German studies are determined by the cultural, historical, socio-political, and informational features of the development of modern society. Text, corpus and translation are considered as the main sources of promising trends in German studies for the description and interpretation of the facts of the modern German language in diachrony and synchrony. Text models and text types are substantiated from the perspective of modern discursive practices of the German language community (migration discourse, multimodal discourse, political and populist discourse, valeological discourse, etc.). The results of corpus research are considered as an empirical basis for research in German studies and for the strategy of inductive generalization. Research in the field of translation studies is aimed at fixing and systematizing established translation techniques based on innovative digital technologies.

Feeling the Truth: Emotions and Digital Truth-making within Right-wing Populist Networks on Twitter/X

Based on an investigation of how everyday users participate in right-wing populist discourse on social media platforms, this article explores the emotional practices that shape and legitimise purported truths about the threat posed by Islam to the Western world. The article builds on the findings of an online ethnography of a right-wing community of users on Twitter. Drawing on a practice theory approach of emotions that considers the properties of social media platforms, we argue that right-wing populist claims to truth do not function in a linear way. The emotions mobilised in this context do not solely focus on rejection and exclusion. Rather, right-wing populist truth-making is a complex process in which emotional practices of inclusion and exclusion are interwoven. 

The Abstract Book of the International Conference Populism in National and Global Media (24-25 November, 2023)

The theme of the Conference − Populism in Local and Global Media − appeared naturally from the insightful observation of the rise of nationalist political discourses in media, citizens’ protests, and their views expression on social media, associated with major political events and campaigns - the COVID-19 pandemic, Russia’s war in Ukraine, and the dramatic economic setback in recent years. This situation was well exploited by a range of actors (media professionals, politicians, influencers, and celebrities) in their populist communication and rhetoric across different media channels. In the light of all these constellations and challenges in Europe and worldwide, an idea evolved to invite media scholars and practitioners to discuss the nexus between populism, politics, communication, media, and wider society. Thus, we were pleased to receive numerous insightful proposals by media and communication scholars from Lithuania and abroad and to hold this illuminating conference on the populist communication and the multiplicity of the populist discourses in media. The The Abstract Book includes the welcoming text by the organizers, the conference programme, the abstracts of the keynote panels, and the abstracts of the thematic paper panels.

Security, Emotions and Radical Right Populism: Beyond a ‘Flaunting of the Low’?

Abstract The rise of exclusionary populism is widely regarded as one of the most significant phenomena in today’s political world. Despite this, the relationship between populism and security remains under-explored in the literature, including the affective power of populist security narratives. Against this background, this paper conducts a comparative analysis of radical right populist discourse in response to two recent shocking crimes in France and Ireland. The different expression given to security concerns in the two countries, such as a much less antagonistic ‘flaunting of the low’ in France, is suggestive of a more contingent and institutionally mediated relationship between security and populism than the existing literature would suggest.